Ballenger said the outcome of Tuesday’s recall is going to have
statewide ramifications regardless of how the election turns out.

If Scott is ousted, it could spell disaster for Democrats and the Michigan Education Association in the form of anti-union legislation or recall efforts against Democrats, Ballenger added.

“I think the House and Senate Republicans are pretty defiant and they’re angry,” Ballenger said. “I think they mean to get even.”

If Scott loses, the state’s political parties will have 15 days to select a candidate to run in a Feb. 28 special election. Scott would stay in office until immediately after the February election is certified and a replacement sworn in to finish the remaining year of Scott’s term.

In its early days, the recall effort was barely a whisper. It was just another among many efforts to get a Republican leader, including Gov. Rick Snyder, thrown out.

Now, the Scott recall is the only one against a state politician in the November election. And somewhere in the months-long courtroom saga that saw the recall kept on the ballot, then taken off, then put on again, people started paying attention.

Detroit’s two major newspapers, the Associated Press and Michigan Radio have given regular coverage to the recall. An 1,150-word article in the Detroit Free Press last week bore the headline “Michigan rep's recall election seen as vote on GOP budget.”

The race also has attention from news and politics blogs across the country.

• A Google search for blog entries with the terms Paul Scott and recall yields about 38,400 results.

• Political blog Daily Kos has been posting updates and guest blogs on the recall since August.

• Education Week, a Maryland-based newspaper and website covering national K-12 education, has featured updates on the recall.

• The Washington, D.C.-based education reform group StudentsFirst has gotten into the fray pledging about $73,000 to help Scott, in part to hire high-profile D.C. and New York City consulting firms.

Both sides of the effort claim the widespread attention has helped their cause.

“I think without question all the attention has increased scrutiny,” Scott said. “It has decreased the ability of both sides to try to push the campaign rhetoric on the voters.”

Recall organizer Bobbie Walton said she thinks the recall effort has tapped into a movement sweeping across the nation right now. She points to movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Wisconsin recalls as examples of similar efforts.

“These are people who see their Democracy slipping away from them,” Walton said. “They are standing up to them and saying no.”

History of a recall

•Technically, the recall
effort against Rep. Paul Scott, began on July 21, when recall language
was approved. The real origin point of the recall saga is harder to pin
down, but
its roots can be traced back to about a year ago. Click here for an
Mlive timeline highlighting some of
the major events that brought us to Tuesday’s recall election.